Sidebar menu

RB News

Royal Brunei Airlines inaugural flight to Narita, Japan

Royal Brunei Airlines marks another significant milestone as RB celebrates the first inaugural flight to Tokyo Narita, Japan on 15 March 2019.

A special reception dinner was held on 14 March 2019 at the Serambi Batil Hall at the Arts & Handicraft Centre overlooking the beautiful Kampong Ayer and Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha Bridge. Present to witness the auspicious occasion was the Guest of Honour Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr. Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah, Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II and Chairman of RB Board of Directors; and our Special Guests Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Awang Abdul Mutalib bin Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Setia Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Yusof, Minister at the Ministry of Transport and InfoCommunications and His Excellency Mr Motohiko Kato, Ambassador of Japan in Brunei Darussalam. Other invited guests included Government Officials, Travel Agents, Business Partners, Corporate Clients, Royal Skies Elite Members and RB Staff.

RB’s Chief Executive Officer Karam Chand said, “We are delighted to welcome Tokyo as our 24th international destination and provide capital city to capital city connection with the launch of our nonstop Tokyo Narita-Bandar Seri Begawan services. As RB resumes our connection to Japan, our Tokyo flight will be the first time in more than two decades that both countries will be connected seamlessly via air linkage. This marks a significant milestone for both Brunei and Japan as this new service will no doubt be an enabler for tourism and trade between our beloved Nations and further strengthen the strong bond that already exists. As the National Airline of Brunei, we want to play our role by providing the missing link on our new service to a key market such as Japan and be the catalyst to create more opportunities and collaborations between businesses, governments and peoples.”

“We made a very conscious decision to select A320neo as the aircraft of choice for our markets including medium haul markets like Tokyo. The cabin features and aircraft capabilities allows us to pioneer new routes of up to 7 hours in duration which were previously the domain of widebody aircraft. The A320 family of aircraft is becoming the aircraft of choice for new long thin markets and RB is one of leading airlines to leverage this on the Tokyo route and soon Brisbane and Beijing,” Mr Chand added.

“We congratulate Royal Brunei on starting commercial services with their new A320neo to one of the world’s most famous travel destinations, Tokyo. With its exceptionally comfortable cabin, greater operational efficiency and extended range capability, the A320neo perfectly suits Royal Brunei’s strategy of offering premium comfort services across its extensive network in the Asian region,” said Jean-François Laval, Executive Vice President Asia for Airbus.

The first flight BI695 from Bandar Seri Begawan departed Brunei International Airport at 00:35hrs with RB’s Airbus A320neo Brunei Tourism special livery aircraft. RB guests will be accommodated with the airlines’ signature service and enjoy an enhanced journey experience on-board the modern aircraft equipped with new cabin features as well unmatched level of personal in-flight entertainment system with more than 1,000 entertainment content to enjoy on demand at every seat.

RB has aligned its business plans to support economic diversification strategy and Wawasan Brunei 2035. Last year was a record year for Brunei with 278,100 visitors to our shores by air. RB’s objective is to grow this to a half million visitors by 2021. Adding on to the benefit of providing direct connectivity and extensive tourism marketing, Japan’s market with RB’s direct and numerous codeshare flights will deliver an estimated 18,000 visitors by 2021 from a small base of 5,400 visitors from Japan last year.

The inaugural flight from Brunei landed in Narita International Airport at 07:30hrs and was greeted with a welcoming ceremony. The RB Head of Delegation was led by RB’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Karam Chand, who was on the first flight.

RB also held a dinner reception on 15 March 2019 to celebrate the inaugural flight with our business partners attended at the Andaz Tokyo Japan downtown.
The thrice weekly flights to Tokyo will be operated using RB’s new fleet of A320neo aircraft as follows:

Flight Numbers

Sector

Timing (Departure/Arrival)

Days of Operation*

BI695

Bandar Seri Begawan to Tokyo

00:30 / 07:30

Wednesday, Friday, Sunday

BI696

Tokyo to Bandar Seri Begawan

11:45 / 17:10

Wednesday, Friday, Sunday

*Frequency will increase to four times weekly on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday effective 3rd June 2019